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CARE OF THOROUGHBRED FOALS. In the "Bloodstock Breeders Review," J. M. Walmsley has an interesting article entitled "Foals and their Treatment." in which he says the best time to judge a foal is one or two days after its birth. "A week or a fortnight later," he adds, "one can judge with more safety as to its turning out well, but often its shape is then more difficult to guage." Many faults are outgrown and big foals that have, perhaps, hardly had sufficient room in their dams, and often appear to have deformed hocks when born, get quite right later on. Other defects, however, are never eradicated. Mr. Walm-! sley says that though it is a controversial point, it is surely essential that breeders should give a foal a fair start, by breeding only from mares and stallions free from "constituthv.ial infirmity." by which term is understood a tent.ency to defects in wind, and of their legs and feet to give way in training. Foals feet should rect-ive attention about tlie sixth week, and future trou iles can be avoided by keeping the feet well shaped, open at the heels, and correcting any tendency to turn toes either in or out. In Mr. Walmsleys opinion, the sooner a foal can be persuaded to eat crushed oats the mere likelihood there is of its coming to early maturity, and he also holds that foals cannot be handled too soon. An early decision as to whether a colt would be better as a gelding is also advisable, as there is no doubt it is best to operate between the fifteenth day and fourth month.
